


It's Only Temporary

by swmbo



Category: The Office (US)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/307836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swmbo/pseuds/swmbo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan is only temporary, at the reception desk - and at Dunder Mifflin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Only Temporary

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place during S2.14, The Carpet - it's totally canon! Except where it's not.

"Jim's been looking at me kind of...a lot, all week. I would be creeped out by it, but it's nothing compared to the way Michael looks at me."

The problem with the interviews, Ryan found, is that sometimes you just needed to fill the silence. And before you knew it, you were telling Chuck or Bob or Lloyd everything, just to get a reaction. Even things they already knew, because they saw everything. Even when it's something that you, well, had kind of wanted to not tell them, even if you weren't sure why.

The thing was, Jim had been looking at Ryan a lot lately. Sometimes just sort of staring off into the distance and maybe that was just the way he thought. Ryan wasn't ever sure if he should make eye contact, so he usually didn't, because he had a plan about not being part of this office. Just to do his job, hit the door at five - or 4:45 if Michael looked like he wasn't going to notice although that didn't happen nearly as often as Ryan hoped - and not get involved. That was the plan and Ryan was going to stick to the plan.

"And..." Lloyd prompted. At least, Ryan thought it was Lloyd. It might have been Chuck.

"And..." Ryan tried to think of something that would make sense. Except, of course, they were at Dunder-Mifflin, which meant that the logical answer was never the right answer. "And I guess it will be a little weird on Monday, when Pam's back."

Lloyd - or Chuck - just looked at him, waiting.

Ryan bit his tongue, tried to keep his face impassive. This time he'd hold out. Or...well, he was just a temp, right? Anything he said would get cut out in editing. "And I won't sit by the reception any longer. I'll kind of miss Jim coming to hang around at me. Even if he sort of sucks at solitaire."

Lloyd nods, inclining his head towards the door. "Thanks," he said briefly, making some little notation on the clipboard in front of him. Ryan tried to crane his head, see what Lloyd's written down, but he couldn't make it out. He could never make it out - sometimes he'd catch a word or two if it's Bob, but Lloyd and Chuck are pros.

*** ***

Monday was weird. Well, no, it was Dunder Mifflin, so Monday was pretty much status quo in it's own way. In this case, a disgusting, smelly way. He was only a step or two into the office before Ryan found himself wrinkling his nose and backing up a little bit. The smell was - well, suddenly he felt really, really glad that Pam was back and he wouldn't be up front.

Michael was sitting at Jim's desk. That was a surprise and Ryan felt his stomach knot a little. Although, that was probably just the smell. Of course.

As he settled into his chair - no, as he sat down into the chair that he refused to actually think of as 'his', Ryan was surprised - and in a good way, for once - to find that, well, he couldn't smell Creed. Maybe his sense of smell had been damaged during the quick trek past Michael's office. He glanced at the office clock. Only seven hours and fifty-two minutes to go. Or, thirty-nine hours and fifty-two minutes, but Ryan was determined to be positive this week.

Which was a good resolution to have made, because the next thing he noticed - he'd gotten very good at not noticing most things - his phone was ringing, and it was an internal call. When he saw it was Jim's extension number - the week at Pam's desk had made Ryan very good at remembering extension numbers - he was almost surprised at how quickly he picked it up. Of course, on the other side it was Michael, asking him to stop by his 'killer pad'. Which made Ryan want to run out the door, but instead he just said "What?"

"My new home, my sweet spot, I need you to stop by, help a brother out."

Which Ryan almost didn't do but then he remembered tuition was due again soon. Only, it turned out that Michael was having trouble adjusting the seat and Dwight was somehow just making things worse and Ryan was just about to fix it, even though Michael insisted that it must be some special, custom-model that only Jim knew how to work, when he realized that fixing it was a lot less productive than, oh, going away and he leapt on the excuse.

"It must be. Maybe - maybe I should go ask Jim, find out what the trick is."

Michael nodded, frowning and gesturing Ryan on and Ryan made his escape before, well, before anything else could happen. At all.

At Jim's desk, there was a ... a look on Jim's face when he saw Ryan. Ryan wasn't actually sure, but it looked like...desperation, maybe. Which was silly and weird and Ryan was just going to ignore it. Except it made Ryan's stomach turn over and the entire conversation he meant to have sort of dribbled out of his brain and he was pretty sure he'd just sort of smiled and mumbled something that made sense before running away. Again.

Back at his desk - with the shortest possible detour past the front of the office - Ryan felt, well, like an idiot. A feeling that was becoming increasingly common and he was surprised he even noticed it. He needed - he needed a drink. Unfortunately, coffee was going to have to do.

Six hours and fourteen minutes.

Four hours and thirty-eight minutes.

Two hours and twenty-one minutes.

Ryan had nearly survived the day when Jim somehow cornered him in the break room. And something - standing next to Jim and apparently Ryan's sense of smell was back because Jim somehow managed to smell like coffee and paper and ink and spice, which were mostly Dunder Mifflin smells and therefore evil, except they weren't. And Jim was asking him...something, something about Kelly, which just made Ryan laugh because, really, Kelly? So there was no way Jim was serious which meant...

Well, Ryan didn't want to think about what it meant. At least not at work. Except suddenly, one hour and fifty-seven minutes didn't really seem that bad. He watched Jim walk out the office, going to talk to 'Kelly' and...well, he was going to have to call the temp agency and tell them it was ok, they could stop looking for another position for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Season 1 & 2 Ryan - I miss you.


End file.
